The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), considered one of the wealthiest terrorist groups in history, still has “over $300 million” in hand in Iraq and Syria even after the U.S.-led coalition and local forces decimated the jihadist organization’s territorial caliphate months ago, PBS News Hour reported Sunday.

According to several U.S. government and independent assessments, ISIS generates revenue from a criminal enterprise that involves oil, antiquities smuggling, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, and drug trafficking, among other crimes.

ISIS has shrunk geographically in recent months, forcing the group to go back to its insurgent roots, which pose a threat to U.S. interests and the Middle East as a whole.

Asked about the impact territorial losses have made on ISIS’s revenue, foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, who covers ISIS and Al-Qaeda for the New York Times (NYT), told PBS:

We are expecting a big downturn in their economics as a result of the fact that they have lost the big base of taxation that they had before. I was just in Baghdad a couple of weeks ago, and I met with coalition officials and unfortunately the number that they were citing for how much money ISIS still has on hand, just in Iraq and Syria, is over $300 million.

So that gives you a sense of just how wealthy this terrorist group is. They are now going back to the types of fundraising that they were doing before, namely illegal taxation in areas that they do not control, coming into areas and telling businesses if you don’t pay up, like the mafia, if you don’t pay you’re going to face the consequences.

Callimachi noted that the terrorist group is increasingly turning to “kidnapping” as a significant revenue source.

Last year, ISIS kidnapped more people than any other terrorist group — 2,180, the U.S. Department of State revealed.

The U.S.-led coalition nearly eradicated the group’s oil revenue, once the top source of income for ISIS.

“Kidnapping, which never stopped but which is becoming a major revenue stream now. And human trafficking, all of the other things that they have done since their earliest days. This is a group that has known how to finance itself without territory for over a decade. So I don’t expect them to go bankrupt any time soon,” Callimachi told PBS.

Although Forbes no longer lists ISIS as the world’s most affluent terrorist group, the organization is still among the top five wealthiest jihadi groups, respectively: Hezbollah, the Taliban, Hamas, al-Qaeda, and ISIS.

The office of the inspector general (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) reported on November 5:

ISIS has lost all territory it held in Iraq and remained in control of only one percent of territory it once held in Syria. However, the DoD and a report produced by a United Nations Security Council monitoring committee stated that an effective clandestine ISIS organization has moved underground and is acting as an insurgency in both countries. While the DoD reiterated its position that its mission remains the “enduring defeat” of ISIS, U.S. officials issued statements this quarter regarding Iran and Syria’s ongoing civil war that raised questions about the duration of U.S. troops in Syria.

The OIG’s assessment came after Cmdr. Sean Robertson, a spokesman for the Pentagon, told Voice of America (VOA) that ISIS is “well-positioned to rebuild and work on enabling its physical caliphate to re-emerge.”

“ISIS probably is still more capable than al-Qaida in Iraq at its peak in 2006-2007, when the group had declared an Islamic State and operated under the name Islamic State of Iraq,” the Pentagon spokesman proclaimed.

“ISIS remains a threat, and even one ISIS fighter is one too many,” he added, acknowledging that thousands of jihadis from the group remain in Iraq and Syria.

In March 2017, an editorial published by Military.com predicted that ISIs would adapt to the collapse of its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria by continuing to expand its international criminal enterprise, particularly the drug trade.

The Pentagon’s OIG assessment noted:

ISIS remained able to generate revenue from limited oil smuggling operations, extortion and taxes, kidnapping and other criminal activity, drug trafficking, and external donations. It also continued to draw on cash reserves. Overall, the report said that in its assessment a “reduced, covert version” of ISIS will survive in Iraq and Syria and will maintain a presence in neighboring countries and affiliates in multiple countries, including Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.

Up to 30,000, ISIS jihadis remain in Iraq and Syria, the United Nations reported in August.

While the sale of oil served as ISIS’s top source of revenue, the group also made money from the unprecedented level of looting and destruction of priceless antiques across the Middle East.

During a House panel hearing in April 2016, the expert witnesses told U.S. lawmakers that ISIS was committing “cultural genocide” as it plundered and sold ancient artifacts to fund its terrorist activities.

The US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, has displayed military equipment confirming that Iran is increasingly supplying weapons to militants across the Middle East and is continuing its missile program unabated, like reported by aawsat.com.

“The new weapons we are disclosing today illustrate the scale of Iran’s destructive role across the region. The same kind of rockets here today could tomorrow land in a public market in Kabul or an international airport,” Hook said Thursday at a military hangar in Washington.

He showed reporters a collection of guns, rockets, drones and other gear. Some of these had been intercepted in the Strait of Hormuz en route to Shiite militants in the region while others had been seized by the Saudis in Yemen.

“Today, the United States is unveiling new evidence of Iran’s ongoing missile proliferation. The Iranian threat is growing and we are accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to act,” said Hook.

“Iran’s support of the Houthi militants has deepened. Its backing of terrorist activities across the world has increased, and its efforts to undermine regional stability have expanded,” he added.

The centerpiece of the display was what Hook said is a Sayyad-2 surface-to-air missile system that the Saudis had intercepted in Yemen this year.

Farsi writing along the white rocket’s side helped prove it was Iranian made, he said.

“The Houthis have launched Iranian-origin missiles at Riyadh, with an estimated range of 560 miles,” he said.

“Iran has funded the Houthis with hundreds of millions of dollars since the conflict broke out. With Iran’s ongoing help, the Houthi threat will grow as their capabilities steadily expand.”

According to Hook, an estimated 4.5 million barrels of oil per day transits through the Bab al-Mandab, while about 17 million barrels a day flow through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran has threatened repeatedly over many years to close the Strait of Hormuz. Give Iran a free hand in Yemen and it can threaten to close both straits and commit acts of maritime aggression with impunity,” he warned.

He told reporters that several new small arms of Iranian origin, such as sniper rifles, RPGs, AK variants, and hand grenades had been given by Iran to Shiite militant groups in Bahrain to carry out attacks against the government.

But Washington stands with Bahrain, which is home to the US Fifth Fleet, Hook said.

In emailed remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, the US special representative for Iran said that Washington will continue to exert extreme pressure on Tehran’s regime so that its leaders change their “malign behavior,” respect their people’s rights and return to the negotiating table.

He stressed that his country is working, under the supervision of President Donald Trump, through its allies in the Middle East and the rest of the world to confront Iran’s nuclear threats, its support for terrorism and extremism, and its proliferation of ballistic missiles.

“Together, we will exert the required pressure to push Iran into changing its behavior,” Hook added.

In concert with its effort to counter Iranian regional influence, the Trump administration has ramped up actions against Tehran’s main proxy force, Lebanese Hezbollah, like reported by thecipherbrief.com.

In a November 13, 2018 speech, the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Nathan Sales, stated that ‘Hezbollah’s ambitions and global reach rival those of Al Qaeda and ISIS [the Islamic State organization].’ Ambassador Sales also reiterated an assertion, first raised by a top Treasury Department official in June 2018, that Iran provides Hezbollah with an estimated $700 million per year—a figure more than three times higher than the $200 million previously cited by U.S. officials.

The administration and Congress have responded to the threat from Hezbollah with economic sanctions, the same tool policymakers have long relied on to counter the group’s sponsor, Iran. On October 25, 2018, President Trump signed a bill into law that vastly expanded the authority of the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015. That law, which is modeled on a 2010 law imposed against Iran, allows the government to deny any foreign bank that wittingly or unwittingly conducts a significant financial transaction with Hezbollah, its affiliates, or partners, access to the U.S. financial system. On November 13, the Treasury Department sanctioned three Hezbollah operatives and financiers, as well as their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps- Quds Force (IRGC) facilitator, for activities in support of Shia militia forces in Iraq. In recent years, successive U.S. administrations have sanctioned hundreds of Hezbollah-related entities for actions in the Middle East, as well as illicit smuggling and other economic activity in the United States itself. In addition to money from Iran, Hezbollah maintains a diverse financial portfolio, including a range of criminal activities such as drug trafficking, counterfeiting and money laundering.

Still, economic and financial sanctions are unlikely to prove effective in curbing the threat from a non-state actor such as Hezbollah, which has little or no known U.S.-based licit assets or economic engagement that can be blocked by American sanctions. Hezbollah is not a global exporter that depends on relationships with major international companies and banks. Therefore, threatening international banks and companies with exclusion from the U.S. market for dealing with Hezbollah does not affect the group in nearly the same way as it would affect a global oil exporter like Iran. Furthermore, the U.S. government is unlikely to sanction the Lebanese economy to compel Beirut to move against Hezbollah. Doing so could cause economic and political instability in Lebanon that would likely strengthen, not weaken, Hezbollah, while simultaneously harming the portion of the Lebanese public that does not support the so-called ‘Party of God.’

The administration has combined its sanctions policy with efforts to counter Hezbollah militarily, although not directly. The administration supported, through sales of precision-guided weaponry, Israel’s bombing of Iranian weapons transshipments to Hezbollah via Syria. Such Israeli strikes have been a feature of U.S. and Israeli policy for many years prior to the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, and the strikes have become more frequent since Iran has developed a military infrastructureinside Syria. The United States has also provided Israel with extensive technical and financial help to deploy sophisticated missile and rocket defense technology, although this network is still assessed as insufficient against Hezbollah’s arsenal of more than 100,000 Iranian-supplied rockets and short-range ballistic missiles. If the current U.S. policy approach fails to effectively counter Hezbollah as the major threat U.S. officials assert that it is, the administration might feel compelled to undertake direct military action. However, any U.S. military action against Hezbollah is certain to prompt retaliation by Hezbollah, and possibly by Hezbollah’s key protector, Iran, and produce a wide regional conflict with no clear resolution, as well as attacks in the West.

Forces from the Gulf are active on the ground in Deir ez-Zor, fighting against the Islamic State and deterring any actions by the Turks writes Basnews

A source close to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the backbone, has confirmed that Gulf Arab forces are participating on the ground in battles against the Islamic State (ISIS) in the group’s last pockets in the Deir ez-Zor countryside, east of the Euphrates.

The source, on conditions of anonymity, told Basnews, “The Gulf Arab participation includes ground forces and heavy machinery east of the Euphrates.”

He added, “The SDF have about 60,000 fighters, 30,000 of them are the forces fighting on the ground, and another 30,000 that the International Coalition will train to be border guard forces.”

The source added that, “Saudi and the United Arab Emirates would have borne the cost of training and arming of these forces, but Turkish opposition and their pressure on the United States and the rest of the International Coalition countries has prevented the application of this plan and delayed it until an appropriate time.”

The source said, “The Arab forces’ participation in the ongoing campaign to eliminate ISIS in its last pockets in the eastern Deir ez-Zor countryside, in conjunction with the efforts to establish observation points on the northern border of the eastern Euphrates areas, come as part of the reactivation of the previously-noted plan to weaken the Iranian presence in Syria by cutting off Iran’s land connection with it.”

The source said that “Saudi and the UAE will contribute to funding the training of border forces and strengthening the observation points on the border with Turkey.”

Although a Kurdish source close to the SDF previously denied to Basnews that the International Coalition forces had specified “observation points” on Kurdistan’s western border with Turkey in Kobani and Tel Abyad yet, another source from the noted area said that American forces had actively begun working over the last 48 hours to establish five observation points on the Turkish border with west Kurdistan (Syrian Kurdistan) as part of a series of measures which Washington is carrying out in order to bolster its military and diplomatic presence in the region. This also included signing a memorandum of understanding for a year to train 30,000 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and fight ISIS cells.

Last Thursday, an official source in the SDF told Basnews that, “Observation and monitoring points are deployed on the border between our forces and Turkish forces, in the town of Ain Eissa in the northern Raqqa countryside, which is part of our understandings with America, France and Britain, regarding Turkish attacks on areas in northern Syria.”

The Kurdish source said that, “Establishing these points aims directly to reduce tension between Turkey and the SDF and to stop Turkish attacks on the eastern Euphrates area in general.” He said that, “This means a return of the stability, which this area had been enjoying after the ISIS attack on Kobani.”

Iran’s proxy militias in Syria are being trained and armed for terrorizing US forces in eastern Syria, starting with IEDs like the bombs that bedeviled American forces in Iraq in 2004-2006, like reported by debka.com.

The mastermind of this campaign is Iran’s Mid East commander, Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that US commanders in Syria were forewarned of the coming campaign after it was approved by Tehran as retaliation for the sanctions re-imposed by the Trump administration.

They learned that terror squads, detached from the Iraqi and Afghan militias encamped in the eastern Syrian Deir ez-Zour province, had in the last few days completed their specialist training by Al Qods and Hizballah bomb experts. They were taught how to blow up American military installations, bridges and transportation routes and how to plant IEDs outside buildings and on the roads frequented by US military traffic.

The American commanders were also apprised by intelligence informants that Iran was sending large quantities of IEDs via Iraq for the use of the newly-trained terror squads. They are a new type of device, compared to the IEDs used in Iraq, with a more powerful bang and the capacity to disable the armored vehicles used by US forces in eastern Syria.

The US army, for its part, is reported by our sources to have rushed another 500 Marines to the big Al Tanf garrison, which straddles the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq, for boosting the security of US troops in the region. They are augmented by 1,700 members of the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) which operates under US command.

It is estimated that Al Tanf will be the first target of attack as soon as Tehran gives the green light for the campaign to start, because it is set in desert terrain where terrorist squads can move at speed. If Iran pulls this initial operation off, it will be extended to other US military locations – in all, at least 12 ground bases and another four air bases in northeastern Syria. They range from Manbij up near the Turkish border up to Al-Hasakeh, the hub of the pro-American Kurdish YPG militia’s political and command headquarters in northern Syria.

In the second half of the month, the United States launched a large-scale air and naval exercise based on the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier and its strike group of five warships, which are present opposite the Syrian shore, as well as US air bases in the Persian Gulf. (See an earlier DEBKAfile article on US flights around the clock over Syria.) British, Israeli and French air contingents have joined the exercise. The French Dupuy de Lome spy ship has also reached Syrian waters and is coordinating its operations with the USS Truman.

Our military sources say that by these moves, Washington is notifying Tehran that the moment US forces come under attack in Syria, America and its allies will strike back at the foundations of the Iranian presence in Syria.

A number of Al Qaeda militants, including at least one commander, were reported killed by an apparent US drone strike in the central Yemen province of Al Bayda on Sunday, like reported by thenational.ae.

The militants, who belonged to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were killed in an attack on their moving vehicle near a known militant base in a mountainous area called Thee Kaleb in the Al Kuraishiya district in the north of Al Bayda, according to a source in the province who spoke to The National on condition of anonymity.

The source said he believed six fighters and two commanders had been killed. An official in Al Bayda told AFP that five fighters including one commander were killed.

Among the dead were two leaders known by the noms de guerre – Abu Mohammed Al Dahab and Abu Al Kaka – the source said.

While US Central Command has not yet confirmed the strike, the US military is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen.

Drone attacks against Aqap intensified after US President Donald Trump took office in January last year. The president authorised 120 drone strikes in Yemen in 2017.

In its last update on November 6, Centcom acknowledged two strikes against Aqap in Al Bayda in September, bringing the total number of air strikes in Yemen this year to 36 at that time.

By comparison, former president Barack Obama authorised 38 strikes in Yemen in 2016 and the first 20 days of last year.

“Despite a decline in counter-terrorism air strikes against Aqap, they continue to pose a significant threat,” a Centcom spokesman said on November 6. “We remain vigilant and will continue to work by, with and through our regional partners to disrupt, deter and destroy Aqap.”

Aqap and ISIS have exploited the chaos of Yemen’s civil war, in which the Arab Coalition-backed government is battling Houthi rebels.

The extremist groups maintain a presence in Al Bayda, where they vie for influence and occasionally fight each other.

“Clashes between the two main terrorist factions in Yemen – Aqap and ISIS – have been repeatedly reported between in Al Bayda this year,” a military source in Al Bayda told The National.

As many as 13 fighters of Islamic State, including senior leaders, were killed Monday in an airstrike in the Iraqi province of Anbar, like reported by iraqinews.com.

Qutri al-Obeidi, a senior leader with al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) in Anbar, told the privately-owned Almaalomah website that the Iraqi Air Force targeted a group of Islamic State terrorists in al-Ja’ara area in the desert of Ar-Rutbah, west of Anbar.

“The airstrike left 13 Islamic State militants dead,” al-Obeidi said, adding that senior IS leaders were among those killed in the air raid.

He pointed out that security measures have been intensified to foil any possible terrorist attack in the area.

Iraq declared the collapse of Islamic State’s territorial influence in Iraq in November 2017 with the recapture of Rawa, a city on Anbar’s western borders with Syria, which was the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

The Islamic State group appeared on the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, declaring the establishment of an Islamic “caliphate” from Mosul city.

Later on, the group has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and beheadings, prompting the U.S. to lead an international coalition to destroy it.

This new game changer in Syria, revealed here by DEBKAfile, provoked an exceptionally detailed threat from Tehran: “US bases in Afghanistan, the UAE and Qatar, and US aircraft carriers in the Gulf are within range of our missiles,” said Brig. Gen. Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ airspace division, on Wednesday, Nov. 21. “We can hit them if they (Americans) make a move. Our land-to-sea missiles have a range of 700 km (450 miles) … and the US aircraft carriers are our targets.” he said.

Iran’s airspace chief was responding to the abrupt change in the skies over Syria. For the past week, the: US Air Force has kept F-22 stealth planes and F/A 18F Super Hornet fighters flying over Syria around the clock. Gen. Hajizadeh knew exactly where they were coming from – the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the US Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE. Why he slipped the Kandahar base into his list is a mystery because none of the USAF planes over Syria come from there. The USS Harry Truman Carrier Strike Group is another matter, since some of the US fighter bombers circling over Syria come from its decks. This five-ship strike group reached Syrian waters late last week. They also had cruise missiles aboard.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that these US overflights are taking place without interruption: as one group flies back to base, another takes its place. Their constant presence in Syrian air space has chased all other warplanes, especially those of Russia and Syria, out of the sky. US pilots also report that the S-300 air defense systems, which the Russians began importing to Syria in October, are not operational and are unlikely to be before January.

This is what Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon was talking about on Tuesday, Nov. 20, when he said: “Russia’s S-300 air defense systems in Syria have no impact on United States’ operations in the country.” He also aimed a warning at Moscow: “Any additional arms sent into Syria only serves to escalate the situation at this point.”

Is this a window of opportunity?

According to an exclusive report reaching our military sources, unidentified aircraft attacked an Iranian target in Syria on Monday, Nov. 19. This was not a major operation and the target was small. All the same, it was the second attack on an Iranian site in Syria since Israel discontinued its aerial attacks in the second half of September. The first, on Oct. 23, appears to have been carried out by unidentified missiles against the Damascus region. After the air strike, Washington hastened to send out quiet messages that the USAF was not involved. However, so long as the Russian S-300s are non-operational and the US Air Force provides an umbrella, Israel is offered a window of opportunity for resuming its assaults on Iran’s presence in, and arms deliveries, to Syria. There is no knowing how long that window will stay open.

Eleven schoolboys were killed and wounded Thursday when a bomb blast targeted a school bus in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, a security source was quoted as saying according to iraqinews.com.

“An explosive charge targeted a bus carrying schoolboys in a village in al-Shura district, south of Mosul, leaving four students dead and seven others wounded,” the source told al-Ahd News Agency.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for attacks targeting crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

The surge in violence between armed groups and government forces has resulted in over five million internally displaced persons across Iraq and left more than 11 million in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A total of 69 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 105 injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in October 2018, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).